JoAnn (Gislason) Rees, age 71, passed away on Friday, January 14, in the presence of her beloved husband and only daughter. JoAnn is survived by her husband, Roger Rees, of 51 years of marriage, in Portland, Oregon; her only child Charlyn (Rees) Palmer, of St. Louis, Missouri; her son-in-law Jason Palmer, of St. Louis, Missouri; her dog “Button”; and one sister.
JoAnn was born on February 21, 1950 in Portland, Oregon. She attended Kennedy Elementary School and graduated from Grant High School. She entered cosmetology school and worked 48 years both practicing and teaching as a hair-stylist.
JoAnn profusely loved and cherished friends and family. She would regularly strike up conversations with total strangers, with an eager desire to meet them and learn about their lives. JoAnn always embraced “strangers are friends that she hadn’t met yet.” She passed with the spirit she lived - with a purpose and direction that nothing would stop her from the task at hand to be completed. She was a force to be reckoned with - you never messed with a loved one or wronged another. She was always game for any adventure, whether it be travel or dressing up (including creating some crazy Halloween costumes that included Lucy from the chocolate factory with chocolate on her face or Carol Burnett portraying Gone with the Wind with the curtain rod dress).
The world may be a bit dimmer from the loss of this firecracker red head (now blonde), but her family and friends will forever remember her boisterous, unique laugh. She will be forever missed but lives on in the life of her devoted husband and loving daughter.
JoAnn strongly supported children’s philanthropies. In light of this, the family respectfully asks that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made in JoAnn Rees’s name and memory to Portland Shriner’s Hospital for Children or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
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